Salivary glands are found in and around a person's mouth and throat. The major salivary glands are the parotid, submandibular, and sublingual glands. These glands provide the needed saliva to assist in food chewing and early digestion of certain carbohydrates, and they support the sense of taste. Saliva is drained through salivary ducts into the oral cavity: the parotid duct connects from the parotid gland to near the upper teeth, the submandibular duct connects from the submandibular gland to under the tongue, and the duct of Rivinus connects from the sublingual gland to the floor of the mouth on the sublingual fold.
Among the different salivary gland problems encountered, obstruction of the flow of saliva via the salivary gland ducts may be the most common. This may be caused by the formation of stones, which can become lodged in the duct and prevent the saliva produced in the salivary gland from exiting the ductal system and entering the oral cavity. The lack of saliva flow contributes to dry mouth disorder and can cause swelling of the salivary gland, leading to pain and possible infection.
Other problems may include the development of kinks in the salivary gland ducts, stenosis (i.e., constriction or narrowing) of the salivary gland ducts, or generally other structural or structurally-related defects associated with the salivary glands and/or salivary gland ducts.
It is therefore advantageous to facilitate the integrity of the salivary ducts and their respective glands, especially when their integrity is compromised, and to treat the glands rather than remove them.